As e-commerce retailers and fulfillment services prepare for the holiday shopping season, companies are hiring massive amounts of seasonal workers to help with the increased volume.

Fulfillment is especially sensitive during the holidays due to weather disruptions and consumer deadlines for holiday gift-giving. Seasonal hirings will likely grow in number because of the growing e-commerce market and the spike in online orders during this period.

Tens of thousands of fulfillment workers are being hired for the holiday season:

Target is hiring 70,000 seasonal employees: The mass merchant is bringing on 70,000 seasonal employees, with 7,500 being deployed to distribution centers, reports Internet Retailer. Meanwhile, some of the employees working in Target brick-and-mortars will be working on fulfilling online orders from the store.

Radial is adding 20,000 seasonal fulfillment workers: The e-commerce fulfillment company is looking to hire 20,000 holiday workers, nearly tripling its current 7,000 full-time employees, according to Internet Retailer. The temporary hires will be spread out across Radial's 26 distribution centers throughout the US, handling fulfillment for major companies like Toys R Us and Fanatics.

These seasonal workers will be a vital resource during the high-volume holiday season. Most online retailers experience a significant spike in order volume thanks to holiday shoppers increasingly moving to e-commerce. In fact, peak shipping volume was so extensive during the 2015 holiday season that in the week leading up to Christmas Day 2015, UPS could only deliver 91% of packages on time, according to ShipMatrix.

For fulfillment provider Radial, hiring seasonal workers could help it avoid this pitfall and frustrated consumers. The sensitivity of the orders due to timing and gifting means that retailers need to provide the most efficient, well-handled delivery. Turning to temporary hires will serve as a big boon for both Target and retailers that use Radial for fulfillment, potentially turning new shoppers into returning ones even after the holidays are over.

The parcel delivery industry — a segment of the shipping sector that deals with the transportation of packages to consumers — is booming thanks to e-commerce growth, and players outside the industry want a piece of the pie.

Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the future of shipping that looks at efforts by Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart to handle more of their own shipping and concludes that big retailers are well positioned to disrupt the parcel industry.

Here are some of the key points from the report:

Transportation and logistics could be the next billion dollar opportunity for e-commerce companies. The global shipping market, including ocean, air, and truck freight, is a $2.1 trillion market, according to World Bank, Boeing, and Golden Valley Co.

There is much at stake for legacy shipping companies, which have seen a boom in parcel delivery as e-commerce spending has risen. Twenty different partners currently share the duties of shipping Amazon's 600 million packages a year, with FedEx, USPS, and UPS moving the most.

Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart have so far focused on building out their last-mile delivery and logistics services but are increasingly going after the middle- and first-mile of the shipping chain.

Amazon has already made major moves across each stage of the shipping journey. It launched same-day delivery service, which it handles through its own fleet of carriers, cutting out any third-party shippers. The company also recently began establishing shipping routes between China and North America.

Walmart's interest in expanding its transportation and logistics operations is almost purely related to cost-savings. It's begun leasing shipping containers to transport manufactured goods from China and is making greater use of lockers and in-store pickup options to cut down on delivery costs.

Alibaba has begun leasing containers on ships, similar to Amazon's Dragon Boat initiative. This means that Alibaba Logistics can now facilitate first-mile shipping for third-party merchants on its marketplace.

In full, the report:

Sizes the market for the shipping industry.

Explains how the industry operates in broad terms.

Suggests why major e-commerce retailers should disrupt the space.

Outlines the shipping initiatives of Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba.

Concludes how these moves might impact traditional carriers.

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